Celebrating fall!

It's officially fall . While the Michigan peeps are enjoying cider and a cool chill in the air, we celebrated like this:


Everyone had a great time, even Ellie who did her fair share of sprinkler running. Here she is shaking the extra water off. It's not a great picture, but you can see how Ellie's tail is bent in the shape of a 7! From what we can tell, she was part of a larger litter inside a smaller mommy. Her tail must have grown pressed against her leg . When she lays down, that indent fits perfectly against her leg. What and endearing quality!

So much for taking it slow

We went out for a family dinner at Noodles and Company ( Thanks, Aunt Meg!!!!) and somehow found ourselves in front of a crate-full of the sweetest puppies! But wait. There's that logical part of my brain again- we were gonna take it slow and really plan out what kind of dog would be best for our family. Isn't that the best way? After all, adding a dog to the family is just like adding any other member of the family. The decision needs to be handled with care...

But HOW can you say no to THIS:


You just CAN'T. Especially when you already have a pretty red collar ( that looks so good on black puppy dogs) and a fuzzy stuffed animal with no one to chew it.

So we eagerly went through the adoption process ( again), this time sure a puppy was the way to go. And since I am " frugal" and we already had a brand new, super fashionable collar tag that proudly proclaimed " Elliot Long", we recycled the name and welcomed " Ellie" ( again) into the family. She is a border collie/lab mix and she is just adorable.

Though I couldn't say " no" to Ellie that day, I have easily said it a million times since.

" NO! Peeing in the house!"

"No chewing!"

" No eating your own....'waste' " quickly followed by " NO licking my face!"

Mackenzie and Ellie have a love/hate relationship. Mack doesn't like chasing Ellie around trying to reclaim her toys and she doesn't like when Ellie plays to rough or tries to steal her snack. But she loves having a tireless puppy to chase around and play with .

The good news- Ellie is afraid of the cats. The cats like that. Things are well.
Ellie is doing great with potty training and is already trained to her crate during the night and while we're out. The stray toy kidnapping and cat food stealing....that's a work in progress.

5-4-3-2-1 Blast off!

Mike and Mackenzie did their first rocket launch last week. Mack was so excited and ,though she didn't expect such a load noise, she's ready to do it again!

Assembly:

The fun stuff! Blast off! :
Watch Daddy retrieve the rocket:
And totally unrelated...look what we have growing in our yard!

Back on track

I have continued to work with Mack using the preschool work books ( that I am obsessed with ) . She has learned so much from them and still asks to do them every day. She'll work on them as long as I let her!

Her favorite thing these days is to cute and sort. She's gotten quite good with the scissors!

Along with cutting, Mackenzie has learned early math, logical thinking, patterns, she's a pro at writing all letters ,even writing some basic words. She has also been reading simple words . She's really at sounding words out and has surprised me several times by reading things out of books that have no picture cues to give her hints. Seems like she's growing up so fast. Each time we pass the school she asks " Is that MY school?"

We're also back in the routine of doing near daily arts or craft projects. Pics of those will be on their way soon!

Daddy's girl

This is undeniably a direct transfer of Mike's DNA to Mackenzie:

Elliot part 2

Things didn't work out with Elliot. While she adored us and was great with Mackenzie, she was very aggressive towards our cats. Duncan and Sydney have been part of our family for nearly 10 years and Mike and I didn't feel comfortable with Ellie's behavior towards them. We were heart broken that things didn't work out but the Denver Dumb Friends League was very understanding and grateful to know more about Ellie so that she could be placed in a home that is even more fitted to her needs. So, we aren't sure where to go from here. We all three are still very interested in finding the right dog for our family. We'll take it slow and see what turns up! Though they are lots more work, we feel a puppy might be the way to go in order to acclimate him/her to our family instead of the other way around. We are trying to decide if this is better done before I have the baby , or after. To be continued.....

Elliott

Mike and I have wanted a dog since the day we got married. I grew up with dogs and missed having one around the house terribly. Now that we have a house with a big yard and lots of room, we felt it was a good time to add another four legged friend. Sooo...Meet, Elliott!

She's a two year old black lab mix and we adopted her from the Denver Dumb Friends league. She is probably among of the smartest and most well mannered dogs I've ever met and we feel so lucky to have found her. When you tell her to " stay" she will stay there until told to move. I've had to remind myself to go back and let " Ellie" move again and when I go back to her " spot" , she's still there waiting patiently. Now, after just two days, when she sees me preparing a meal or snack, she automatically goes to her spot and wait for me to tell her the meal is over.

To Mackenzie's delight, Elliott loves to play fetch. The only fault I've found with that is that she occasionally gets so excited that she has to be reminded not to jump up. Once she's reminded, she is sure to keep all paws on the ground. She also loves water as we found out at bath night....


We're trying to assimilate her into the cats' world which so far has meant to keep them separated. They sniff at each other under door ways and the only time I've heard Ellie bark is when she got swatted under the door by a kitty claw. We were advised to keep them apart for at least a week and hope things will go smoothly after that.

More of Ellie to come, I'm sure: